The Naiad Voyages

Mark Austen

2016.09.01 - Side Decks - Part 5

Thursday, 1 September, 2016

I'm starting to see real progress for only a small amount of work and the next few days should see a great deal of progress assuming that nothing goes wrong. Today's task was to clean up the outer edge of the side decks and to do this I needed to screw them in place. Once that was done I wheeled the boat out of the workshop and set to with a power planer to get the rough work done and then a power belt sander to finish it off. the I needed a shower since `i was covered in shavings and sawdust.

The first job was to mark the position of the screws. These needed to be every 6" or so and 1/2" in from the edge of the gunwale.

Getting an accurate position, the 1/2" in from the edge of the gunwale, was achieved by using a jig. This little gizmo is just the job.

And here is how it works. The lower leg rests agains the gunwale and a pencil in the upper leg marks the spot. The channel between the two allows the jig to move along the hull without being impeded by the overhanging side deck.

A view from the underneath may make this clearer.

Having drilled the pilot holes, or every other one for the moment, and screwed the side decks down, but not too hard so that they remain at the correct angle, Naiad was wheeled out into the sunshine.

The fore and aft ends of the side decks were pretty well tightened down as these rest on the beams which are at the correct angle.

In between the screws were only put in every other hole, just enough to prevent the deck from moving. In this photo you can also see the overhang that will be removed.

And here is the job done. Places almost to the gunwale and then sanded flush.

the other side finished as well.

And the view from the top showing the inner and outer curves on the side decks.